Donald Fagen

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Hey folks, it’s October, and as you can see by the names listed below, IT IS ON at our local and big box stores. In other news, The New Yorker Festival is also happening this month.
Barnes & Noble NYC Events October 2013
10/02 Nick...

My post about the September 21, 1985, American Top 40 show last week brought out an interesting comment from reader Steve E., who noted that the fall of ’85 was the moment at which he stopped listening to current music. I am guessi...

My post about the September 21, 1985, American Top 40 show last week brought out an interesting comment from reader Steve E., who noted that the fall of ’85 was the moment at which he stopped listening to current music. I am guessing many amongst the readership had a similar moment—when they went from being regular listeners to a contemporary Top 40 or album-rock radio station and switched to oldies or classic rock or something else.
Mine came in 1987, when I went to work for the elevator-music station. I still listened to Top 40 in the car and at home sometimes, and I kept up a nodding acquaintance with the hits of the day, but only for a while. Give me a song title for any year between 1970 and 1986 and I can tell you approximately what month and year it was big. Give me one after the middle of 1987, and I can’t. By some point in the late 80s, I had made the same transition Steve E. did a few years earlier.
By 1990, I was working at an adult contemporary station, so I became retroactively familiar with some of the late 80s hits I missed, and I played the ones that crossed to AC as currents in the early 90s. From about 1994 until I started working at Magic in 2008—years when I either worked in classic-rock radio or was out of radio altogether—I missed pretty much everything. Today, I am necessarily familiar with current AC hits by people like Kelly Clarkson, Train, Maroon 5, and so on, but ultimately, they’re just equipment, like headphones and the clock on the studio wall. They aren’t what I’m listening to in my spare time.
It’s not strictly correct for any of us to say we’ve stopped listening to current music, of course. Recent albums by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Boz Scaggs, and Donald Fagen are in the hot rotation at my house, and by the time you read this, Elton John’s The Diving Board will be joining them. I await the new Rosanne Cash album in January, and Van Morrison hasn’t made a record in that last 10 or 15 minutes, so he’s due, too. Am I buying Macklemore or Vampire Weekend or whatever’s big on the radio right now? No I am not. But I’m not strictly an antiquarian either. Not yet, anyhow, although if you want to argue that listening to new releases by people I first discovered in the 70s and 80s isn’t the same as discovering new music, I’d probably listen to your argument.
So let’s hear from the readership. When did you stop listening to current music on the radio? Is there a moment or a reason you can point to, or is it something that just faded away? Or have you never stopped? I expect your stories will probably be more interesting than mine, so have at it.
Filed under: Radio Tales

Review by rogerthat &mdash; There is a marked change in Steely Dan's music for the album The Royal Scam. As some reviews written at that time also noted, Steely Dan move away from the generally laidback, cool attitude that their music ...

Review by rogerthat &mdash; There is a marked change in Steely Dan's music for the album The Royal Scam. As some reviews written at that time also noted, Steely Dan move away from the generally laidback, cool attitude that their music conveys a bit and rock out. Aja should have been the logical next step after Katy Lied as songs like Doctor Wu already hinted at the direction they would take on that album. Instead, Steely Dan put together what they took to be a blend of rock and funk and which instead ended up sounding like - at least to my ears - jazz rock/fusion with vocals. This aspect is particularly noticeable on Green Earrings. The intro sounds like it would build up to some funk but once their trademark guitar chords kick in, we are clearly in fusion territory. The song has two guitar solos back to back in the middle and another in the coda. Did they really expect to succeed with this? Apparently, they did. As Finnforest mentions in his review, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the twin kingpins of Steely Dan, felt that they desperately needed to get their act together or they would get relegated forever to the 'second division' of the music business. This urgency is brought out in their sleeve notes (do read it, by the way, it has a hilarious account of Fagen and Becker sharing the same nightmare). Some of this urgency seems to have to rubbed off on their music. The somewhat meandering nature of Katy Lied is gone and in its place is a very tight, driving execution of the Steely Dan formula. The elements remain fundamentally the same: a blend of jazz, funk, rock and blues with Fagen's sly style of singing on top, performed and produced to perfection. But slow burners like Caves of Altamira are now interludes that provide breathing space in the midst of racy music rather than the norm (as in Katy Lied). There is further a hint of tension that balances out their usually complacent irony so that, at least you get to the somewhat repetitive title track, the album seems to fly past in a hurry. Clocking at 41 minutes, it is, like most Steely Dan albums, indeed not too taxing on your time. The music also complements the lyrical themes used in this album (or, the other way round, if you like). Don't Take Me Alive or Kid Charlemagne focus on criminal activity while Everything You Did focuses on infidelity. The common feature is somebody has done some wrong and it's either him trying to run or the hunter in hot pursuit. The escapades are laced with trademark Steely Dan humour (for instance, "I jumped out of my easy chair/It was not my own"). You've really got to listen to that and the album as such with Fagen's wry delivery; it adds to the fun. So is there a problem? Apparently not, if you ask Fagen and Becker. To quote from the sleeve notes: "we find ourselves rocking out to the soul stirring sounds of some fiercely funkadelic and deeply righteous Bernard Purdie grooves, Chuck Rainey bass lines, Paul Griffin piano riffs, and the like. Here comes a guitar solo - Larry Carlton, no problem there." As these words attest, there is indeed some amazing musicianship on this album. You will be simply spoilt by the abundance of great guitar leads (check out THAT tone on Don't Take Me Alive or Everything You Did for that matter) and there is also a wonderful saxophone solo on Caves of Altamira. As I mentioned earlier, the title track stretches on for a bit but otherwise, the album is mostly a very engaging affair. But it did not ultimately deliver what they were looking for in terms of success. The difference between previous Steely Dan albums and Royal Scam is subtle rather than stark. By 1976, they weren't exactly alone in the corporate rock game either and it may have been felt that they didn't really have a new sound to offer with this album. As a result, it was reasonably successful but not the blockbuster they wanted. Steely Dan raised their game on Royal Scam but the public weren't really

Review by rogerthat &mdash; Katy Lied is like the Atom Heart Mother of Steely Dan's work. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are perhaps so unhappy about it sound getting compromised in the recording for technical reasons (which I won't be...

Review by rogerthat &mdash; Katy Lied is like the Atom Heart Mother of Steely Dan's work. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are perhaps so unhappy about it sound getting compromised in the recording for technical reasons (which I won't be getting into) that they have a rather lukewarm opinion of this album. I quote from their notes to the 1999 issue of Katy Lied, 'What to call this latest installment in this saga? "Too Little, Too Late?" "Almost Good"? "And Then There Were Three?" "The Rape of the Domini?" ' It doesn't get a particularly overwhelming thumbs up from fans or critics either, though Robert Christgau does seem to like it more than Royal Scam or Aja. With due respect, I submit that just as in the case of AHM, a Steely Dan aficionado would do well to politely disregard the take of the band members and instead find out for themselves. All things considered, Katy Lied is not as bad as it is made out to be. It may well be the weakest in a run of great Steely Dan albums. Which is a bit like saying Rubber Soul is lame because it is not nearly as good as Revolver (I mean, so what?). Does that make it avoidable? No sir!Katy Lied presents another important milestone in the development of Steely Dan as a band. Having already decided circa Pretzel Logic that sessions musicians delivered more value for them than their 'real' band members, Steely Dan snapped the proverbial umbilical cord en route to Katy Lied. Since the other members wanted to tour and Steely Dan were having no more of it, they just fired them, leaving the old firm of Fagen & Becker to work with an enviable roster of 'hirelings' to borrow a phrase used by the duo. As yet, the list 'only' included Larry Carlton, Jeff Porcaro and Mike McDonald (it would swell to 'epic' proportions by the time of Aja). The result: an album that sounds fantastic in spite of aforesaid technical issues. Seriously, I have played this one and Mirage (Camel) back to back and the sound of Katy Lied is pristine and crystal clear with no disturbances. It is no wonder that Fagen and Becker go ga ga over the contribution of Roger Nichols who patiently delivered to two exacting perfectionists what they were looking for. And of course, all those musicians didn't hurt either. There is a great saxophone solo on Doctor Wu, followed by more superb sax on the coda of the same song. There are plenty of great guitar solos to choose from, be it on Chain Lightning or Throw Back the Little Ones (the last one evoking the famous Kid Charlemagne solo in places). My favourite, though, is ironically the solo contributed by original member Dennis Dias (now playing the part of session hand) on Your Gold Teeth II. Did Pat Metheny listen to Steely Dan in the mid 70s, by any chance? There are some songs like Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More or Everyone's Gone To The Movies that don't do much but even these aren't necessarily bad, only overshadowed by tracks like Your Gold Teeth II. What, not a word thus far about Black Friday? How can that be? Anyway, it's a catchy rocker with (again) some tasty guitar but it probably belongs on Countdown to Ecstasy rather than Katy Lied. Speaking of which, Katy Lied continues Steely Dan's evolution towards a smooth, jazz-rock based approach. Black Friday apart, there's nothing here that's particularly rocking in the way of a My Old School or Bodhisattva and even the rough edges of a Night after Night seem to be on their way out. More and more, their songs revolve around keyboard chords rather than a bluesy riff to set the tone. It should by all accounts have made them even more distant for the public. Instead, they only grew stronger with each album as they moved further and further from 'rawk', eventually striking gold with Aja. As I said in my review of Pretzel Logic , Steely Dan bucked the conventional wisdom of 70s music culture and did themselves a world of good that way. In fact, I wonder why it took yet anothe

Review by rogerthat &mdash; The chorus of the title track of this album goes, "Those days are gone forever/Over a long time ago". These words could well be applied to this album as such. Steely Dan made a clean break with the concept ...

Review by rogerthat &mdash; The chorus of the title track of this album goes, "Those days are gone forever/Over a long time ago". These words could well be applied to this album as such. Steely Dan made a clean break with the concept of a 'real band'. Touring on the back of Countdown to Ecstasy ostensibly destroyed their enthusiasm for it and they placed their trust firmly in the hands of sessions musicians. It is a decision that may have appeared bizarre at the time and perhaps bold circa 2013. In 1974, rock was very much about filling large arenas. The box office stars were bands that were renowned for their live act, like Led Zeppelin, The Who or Emerson Lake & Palmer. In such an environment, bucking the trend and sticking to 'boring' studio musicians would have been a strange choice to make. It was something R&B artists like Stevie Wonder did, not a RAWK band! But time has made Donald Fagen and Walter Becker look very much the sly cats they have always been. Metal gradually unseated rock as the music of the arena in the 80s. With the gradual fading away or slowing down of the big metal bands like Iron Maiden or Metallica, the earlier fascination for the arena has probably ebbed, notwithstanding bands like Muse. Thus, Steely Dan didn't do so badly for emulating the example of The Beatles and focusing their energy on utilising the magic of the studio. For that reason, Pretzel Logic is perhaps the most influential Steely Dan album. It was the model they would follow all the way to Gaucho, when they hung up their boots. The basic formula - heavily jazz leaning rock - was also laid down in Pretzel Logic. While I personally enjoyed the more hard rocking/'proggy' moments in Countdown to Ecstasy, the duo seemed to desire more focus to create a more cohesive musical experience. Not surprisingly, many compositional trademarks of Steely Dan can also be traced back to Pretzel Logic. I do not have the wherewithal to pin it down in this review but my gut feeling tells me that three songs - Rikki Don't Lose That Number/Night By Night/Pretzel Logic - lay down the magic formula for much of Steely Dan's work. Compare Night by Night with Home At Last for instance or the chords of Rikki with the title track of Aja. Of course, Steely Dan were far too inventive to simply plagiarise themselves and recycle ideas from this album for subsequent ones. But the approach to constructing a good Steely Dan number was laid down at least as early as Pretzel Logic. So why does Pretzel Logic still sound so different from Aja? The answer probably lies in their mastery of arrangements. To return to Night by Night, it is one hell of a rocking number with a bias towards rock and funk. Whereas Home At Last leans much more towards smooth jazz and is restrained and subtle in its treatment. Another difference is Donald Fagen's singing is also much more 'open' and full throatedt, again more like rock, on this album. The trademark wryness and irony that we identify with in Fagen's singing is very much intact, both on Pretzel Logic and Aja and also everything else in between.With roughly the same basic approach, Steely Dan are able to cover a wide variety of moods and that, combined with their quirky chords, is what makes them a compelling experience for a jazz loving prog rocker. The band do require one to be a little tolerant of pop structure and in fact a good amount of pop flavour. They don't resemble pop outright but they do have a slightly commercial element somewhere that you may not enjoy if you are fussy about classic rock aesthetics and such. Another point more specific to this album is some of the tracks are REALLY short. Just two and half a minutes or so. It may have made for brevity but it also stops the band from developing the tracks a little more which they could have and did on subsequent albums. That is perhaps the main distinction between Pretzel Logic and Aja. The songs on the latter are drawn out

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www.nytimes.com
by Nate Chinen
Genial, intractable, unvarnished, in control: these were all equally true of Willie Nelson and Levon Helm on Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall. Each led his w...

photo credit: http://coedmagazine.com
www.nytimes.com
by Nate Chinen
Genial, intractable, unvarnished, in control: these were all equally true of Willie Nelson and Levon Helm on Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall. Each led his working band, engaging a cross-section of old-time American music, from folk and country to gospel, blues, early jazz, rock ’n’ roll. Both men were radiant with authority and its trickier cousin, authenticity. A few months back he released “Country Music” (Rounder), a handsomely austere, staunchly tradition-minded album produced by T Bone Burnett. It’s easily the most focused entry in the recent Willie Nelson discography, and he barely touched it here. (“Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” the song that closes the album, turned up shortly after the midpoint of the set.)
Taken as a concept rather than a checklist, though, “Country Music” was well served by this show, which featured a lot of shuffle rhythm and favored wisdom over revelation. Easing into gear with the Family, his sparse and attentive cohort, Mr. Nelson gave the proper airing to songs by Hank Williams, Fred Rose and Lefty Frizzell, along with a few of his own. His guitar playing was clean and coltish — often he raced ahead of the beat, waited for the others to catch up and then sprinted forward again — and his singing was typically spry, a nasal twang just lightly abraded with age.
That’s one more distinction between Mr. Nelson and Mr. Helm, whose bout with throat cancer a dozen years ago made singing of any sort seem a precious gift. Mr. Helm, 70, sang sparingly here, entrusting most of the task to members of the band: his daughter Amy Helm, Teresa Williams, the guitarist Larry Campbell and the keyboardist Brian Mitchell. (Also on keyboards was Donald Fagen of Steely Dan; he sang a bit too.) When Mr. Helm did vocalize, it took the form of a soulful rasp, weathered with cracks.
His drumming, on the other hand, was as lean as ever, a righteous marvel of concision and grit. He had plenty to work with in the set, with rhythms ranging from country two-step to New Orleans second-line. He played just a bit of mandolin, on “Deep Ellum Blues,” and took the opportunity to throw in some hip-thrusting dance moves. Everything about his presence suggested jubilant exertion.
Closing with “The Weight,” one of his biggest hits with the Band, he brought Mr. Nelson onstage as a guest. This was promising, but Mr. Nelson eschewed the microphone, choosing only to play a meandering guitar solo.

Rock band m: Steely Dan released Pretzel Logic (ABC) in 1974. The album was big, one its most successful. But with younger audiences unfamiliar with jazz, the disc surely must have caused some confusion, along the lines of: "What in the ...

Rock band m: Steely Dan released Pretzel Logic (ABC) in 1974. The album was big, one its most successful. But with younger audiences unfamiliar with jazz, the disc surely must have caused some confusion, along the lines of: "What in the world is this 'East St. Louis Toodle-oo?' And what are they talking about with 'Parker's Band?'" The former tune, a three-minute instrumental, closed out side one and it was, of course, from the pen of composer/bandleader m: Duke Ellington. The latter, a m: Walter Becker/m: Donald Fagen original, celebrated alto saxophonist/bebop pioneer m: Charlie Parker. These nods to two jazz giants may have been lost on many of the young and uninitiated, who may not have realized that Becker and Fagen--soon to be the only remaining constant members of Steely Dan--were huge jazz fans...

Coconut water, people. Can’t stress that enough. The only other option to cure your Outside Lands hangover is, of course, that old hair of the dog tonic, additional live music. That and a Bloody Mary, and you’ll be fine. Here’s our five-...

Coconut water, people. Can’t stress that enough. The only other option to cure your Outside Lands hangover is, of course, that old hair of the dog tonic, additional live music. That and a Bloody Mary, and you’ll be fine. Here’s our five-step program to recovery:Jonathan Richman, Make Out Room, Monday-Thursday Richman is a legend for many reasons. First and foremost, he was the celebrated lead singer for The Modern Lovers, one of the most important bands in 1970s underground rock ‘n’ roll movement. The band essentially picked up where Velvet Underground left off. Almost as if Richman and Lou Reed were having a conversation between albums, Richman’s sing-talk-sing style was a near-duplicate of Reed’s. But Richman was the literalist where Reed was the provocateur. Whatever seemed to amuse Richman, or whatever was emotionally consuming at the time, that’s how the song went. Forget reading between the lines, and that’s still very much the case today.
Best Coast, The Fillmore, Thursday On the surface, it seems Bethany Cosentino is the anti-Katy Perry–a silicon-free, three-chord-progressing, production value-averse Valley Girl-hater. But the two SoCal femme fatales actually have more in common than hipster fanboys would like to admit: mainly their lyrical directness, where a thunderstorm is just a thunderstorm, desires aren’t hidden, and wars are waged against heartbreakers in song form. Say what you mean and mean what you say, sayeth Cosentino. Also, opener Bleached is definitely worth getting there early for. Proof:
James Murphy (DJ set), Public Works, ThursdayMurphy has compared his DJ sets to hosting company and serving coffee. Not sure that’s exactly what it’s like on our side when a living legend mans the dials in our backyard club. But the caffeine always helps one keep up with Murphy’s DJ sets. And no, he probably won’t play any LCD Soundsystem songs, but that’s fine. His DJ sets are routinely excellent and refreshing departures for a superstar searching for new ground. And yes, this is me doing reverse psychology hoping that the LCD reunion tour is just around the corner.Paper Diamond, 1015 Folsom, Friday This Colorado DJ is in good company on Pretty Lights’ label. Much like Pretty Lights, Paper Diamond’s house tracks come with serious swagger. Prepare to move and bounce and throw fits. The good kind. And this isn’t house music that's only palatable in the club. Listen at work, at home doing the dishes, in the car weaving through traffic. This is the versatile stuff even your parents might understand. Steely Dan, America's Cup Pavilion, Saturday Speaking of your parents, you might want to let them know about Steely Dan’s show down on the Embarcadero this weekend. These jazz-rock gods of yesteryear changed the game for a generation hungry for innovative takes on classic rock formats. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are still ...wait for it...reelin in the years, but they’re gettig up there. See these legends while you can. And pray for this song:
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Steely Dan Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica Cleveland, Ohio July 23, 2013
Time flies when you are having fun and it's hard to believe that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, collectively known as Steely Dan, are well into that life niche known a...

Steely Dan Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica Cleveland, Ohio July 23, 2013
Time flies when you are having fun and it's hard to believe that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, collectively known as Steely Dan, are well into that life niche known as the senior years. Fortunately, they still have a thing for the road, which means their iconic repertoire can be heard live in select cities once every few years. For Cleveland fans, it has been a long haul. Back in 2011, The Dan skipped a northern Ohio location, heading for Cincinnati instead. Prior to that, you'd have to go back to the fall of 2009 for an area performance, which happened to actually be a two-night stand in Akron...